BJP MLA prima facie defamed Min Gahlot: Court sends summons

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Monday ruled that BJP MLA Vijender Gupta had prima facie defamed Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot in repeatedly naming him as an accused in the purported scam with regards to the DTC's purchase of around 1,000 low-floor buses.

The court, which was hearing a plea for a criminal defamation case against Gupta, ordered for the MLA to be summoned through the Station House Officer of Tilak Marg police station, where Gahlot said the first instance of defamation had allegedly been noticed.

The issue came up when the Delhi BJP, led by Gupta started targetting the Delhi government over corruption allegations in the DTC purchase deal. While the opposition party insisted on irregularities in the deal, many such as Gupta linked Transport Minister Gahlot — directly to it.

Following this, Gahlot had filed for defamation.

Now, a court in the Rouse Avenue Court Complex has said that the evidence provided so far showed prima facie allegations against Gupta to be true.

"The court is of the considered view on the basis of oral submission, document placed and proved on record in pre-summoning evidence by complainant (Gahlot) and the deposition of complainant witnesses that accused Vijender Gupta has prima-facies committed the offences punishable U/s 499/500/501 of the IPC," the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey said, adding that Gupta should now be summoned in the case, following which a preliminary findings report can be filed by the police.

During the proceedings, Gahlot appeared as a witness for himself alleging that Gupta's tweets and Facebook posts defaming him by linking him to an alleged corruption scandal had damaged the Minister's image and reputation among the public.

In his plea against the opposition politician, the Minister had presented several tweets and Facebook posts as evidence, along with a couple of complainant witnesses who were deposed in court.

As per case records, Gahlot alleged that Gupta knew that the allegations would lower his reputation among the public and that he "deliberately and intentionally" went ahead with his social media posts. In fact, the Transport Minister presented as many as 18 of Gupta's tweets to prove his point.

Significantly, while the issue of the alleged irregularities in the purchase of 1,000 low-floor buses was raised and has now been recommended for a Preliminary Enquiry by the CBI, an independent committee had reviewed the deal and submitted a report to the L-G. While the BJP claimed the report "exposed the scam", the AAP claimed it gave their government a clean chit.

The CBI's Preliminary Enquiry is underway but it will only convert to an FIR if there is sufficient evidence for cognizable offences.